Program Support Assistant

Program Support Assistant

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Leeds, Massachusetts

Salary Range: $51235 - $66605 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located at VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System (VA CWM HCS). The Program Support Assistant functions as an administrative/clerical support staff.

Major Duties:

• ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION, YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** Duties include, but may not be limited to the following: Interprets administrative policies, develops and implements local policies, defining administrative requirements, provides advice and support to the service line. Provides administrative clerical support regarding timekeeping, performance appraisals and employee files. Gathers and reports various data and business processes to supervisors on a regular basis. Conducts studies, monitors reports and analyzes workload data using a wide range of methods and procedures. Sets priorities, coordinates activities and has a high degree of skill in oral and written communications. Ability to use Microsoft Work, Outlook, and Excel programs, scheduling, and other software programs. Maintains and operates various pieces of office equipment including a copier, fax machine, and scanner. Maintains accurate records and orders supplies. Prepare travels arrangements. Types various correspondence and utilize various computer software to produce working documents and forms. Receives and directs visitors, answers telephone calls, refers visitors and callers to appropriate personnel. Maintains program office calendars, schedules and arranges meetings. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full-time, Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved

Qualifications: To qualify for this position at the GS-6 grade level, you must meet the following requirement: SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: You must have one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-5) in Federal service that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience is typing various correspondence; utilizing various computer software to produce working documents and forms; maintaining accurate records; receiving and directing visitors; answering multi-line phones; maintaining program office calendars, scheduling, arranging meetings, and timekeeping. Note: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hour worked per week. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably to do the work. However, there may be some walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items (medical records, computing devices, manuals, papers, books, small parts), or driving an automobile. The work requires manual dexterity for computer data entry, office machine operation and filing. However, in general, the work does not require unusual physical demands. The work does require emotional stability to resolve crisis situations.

How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online assessment and submission of the required documentation specified in the Required Documents section above. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12912297. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 03/26/2026. After submitting the online application, you will be notified whether or not you are required to take additional online assessments through the USA Hire Competency Based Assessment system. This message will be delivered to you via email notification. The email may be routed to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. IMPORTANT: If you are asked to take the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be presented with a unique URL to access the USA Hire system. Access to USA Hire is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Be sure to review all instructions prior to beginning your USA Hire Assessments. Click here for Computer System Requirements. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue at a later time, you can re-use the URL sent to you via email and also found in your USAJOBS account under the "Track my application" link for the corresponding application. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.

Application Deadline: 2026-03-26